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Re: Bond Money is available from local component., and cab cars should be safe....
Author: mook
Date: 03-03-2015 - 22:24
I think the "connections" allocation - the $900m - is pretty much all spoken for by now. Pretty sure BART sucked up at least some of it, and Caltrain at one time (still does?) expected to get some for their electrification project. The bulk of the bonds are limited to use for HSR by the Proposition, not just by the preferences of the HSR Board.
Of course, you've heard my conspiracy theory by now - that QK and friends wanted $1b or so for transit, but figured it had a snowball's chance of passing, so he asked for something bigger and glitzier but with enough conditions and poison pills that nobody could meet them all with a realistic HSR system. That way he got his $1b and the rest would never be spent. The court battles over that are still going on. And no, grade separations were never even thought about as something to be covered from the transit allocation (which could also assist with commuter trains), except for whatever might be incidental to the transit projects.
Of course, you've heard my conspiracy theory by now - that QK and friends wanted $1b or so for transit, but figured it had a snowball's chance of passing, so he asked for something bigger and glitzier but with enough conditions and poison pills that nobody could meet them all with a realistic HSR system. That way he got his $1b and the rest would never be spent. The court battles over that are still going on. And no, grade separations were never even thought about as something to be covered from the transit allocation (which could also assist with commuter trains), except for whatever might be incidental to the transit projects.
